]]>Here are 10 office pranks that will bring a smile without a stern word from HR:

]]>http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/blog/top-10-office-april-fools/feed/0http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/blog/top-10-office-april-fools/Canal Team Buildinghttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freshtracksblog/~3/CfYLQQdZMlo/
http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/blog/canal-team-building/#commentsTue, 31 Mar 2015 12:21:50 +0000http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/?p=5642If you’ve been inspired by John Sergeant’s ‘Barging Around Britain’ or Channel 4’s ‘Great Canal Journeys‘ then our Messing about on the River Team Building Day might be just the thing for you.

We have access to a number of narrow boats all across the UK. They provide a great base for a team away day, during which you’ll get to steer the boat, operate locks and enjoy a relaxed lunch in a canal side pub. Additionally we provide a guide, refreshments and team challenges to keep the team occupied throughout. For more information click here.

]]>http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/blog/canal-team-building/feed/0http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/blog/canal-team-building/8 Ground Rules for Great Meetingshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freshtracksblog/~3/2NDYzaPZPJc/
http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/blog/8-ground-rules-for-great-meetings/#commentsMon, 23 Mar 2015 13:38:03 +0000http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/?p=5634We first saw these meeting ground rules in the conference rooms of a Japanese car company. And they have served us well ever since. Next time you chair a meeting share and enforce them and let us know if they help.

1. Start and Finish on Time
2. Be Open and Honest
3. Share Responsibility for Achieving Objectives
4. Keep to Agreed Agenda
5. If a session Becomes Unproductive Say So at the Time
6. Make Discussion Productive
7. Only One Person to Speak at a Time – No Side Conversations
8. Listen – Don’t Interrupt

]]>http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/blog/8-ground-rules-for-great-meetings/feed/0http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/blog/8-ground-rules-for-great-meetings/What the F?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freshtracksblog/~3/vVbXpGOxAMI/
http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/blog/what-the-f/#commentsFri, 20 Mar 2015 10:32:05 +0000http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/?p=5628
Here’s an exercise that will put them to the test.

• Copy the phrase ...]]>Have you ever given a talk and wondered if your audience are really paying attention?

Here’s an exercise that will put them to the test.

• Copy the phrase ‘FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY, COMBINED WITH YEARS OF EXPERIENCE’ onto a slide.
• Before showing this to your audience tell them they must read the phrase and count how many letter Fs they see
• Show the slide for 15 seconds
• Most people will see three or four
• There are in fact six. Our brains skip the word ‘of’

]]>http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/blog/what-the-f/feed/0http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/blog/what-the-f/To Fire or not to Fire – 5 considerations to ease the decisionhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freshtracksblog/~3/ZuN-GIkCmwY/
http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/blog/to-fire-or-not-to-fire-5-considerations-to-ease-the-decision/#commentsTue, 10 Mar 2015 11:22:52 +0000http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/?p=5615Jim Collins in ‘Good to Great’ talks about getting the right people on the bus, in the right seats and getting the wrong people off the bus. Whilst recruitment and talent management is energising for most managers, firing team members is really tough. Consequently many leaders procrastinate and therefore lead underperforming teams.

If you’re wrestling with whether or not to retain an underperforming member of staff here are 5 questions to ask yourself:

1) What’s the cost of keeping this person? Does it outweigh the cost of letting them go? Recognise the cost. What percentage of your organisations outgoings are people costs? Costs aren’t just financial. Is this person impacting productivity, causing other good people to quit or creating unnecessary office politics?

2) How will their colleagues feel? If possible ascertain what others in the team feel, is this person holding them back?

3) If he/she handed you their letter of resignation today, would you feel relieved? If the answer to this question is yes, you are probably procrastinating and delaying the inevitable.

4) Does good past performance justify weak future performance? Often we hold onto weak team members because they were once strong. This communicates a dangerous message to your staff, suggesting that underperformance is tolerated.

5) Is the person teachable and likely to raise their game? We all go through down patches and need second chances. It’s important to recognise that teachable people can rise again. Those resistant to feedback and learning rarely do.

As with any hiring or firing decision be sure to consult with an HR professional.

]]>http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/blog/to-fire-or-not-to-fire-5-considerations-to-ease-the-decision/feed/0http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/blog/to-fire-or-not-to-fire-5-considerations-to-ease-the-decision/Breaking Bread – our newest team building programmehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freshtracksblog/~3/PKKETkt69HA/
http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/blog/breaking-bread-our-newest-team-building-programme/#commentsTue, 10 Mar 2015 10:58:50 +0000http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/?p=5607For thousands of years, the head of the table has broken bread to signal the commencement of a meal. Celebration, or feasting, is an important practice for high performing teams. Our latest activity explores the similarities between building teams and making bread.

With the popularity of TV shows like ‘The Great British Bake Off’, alongside concerns over additives in commercial loaves, the art of baking bread is back in vogue. The smell of freshly baked bread is captivating and many say the process of kneading therapeutic. Making bread is a simple process but one that requires patience and control.
We’ve identified many parallels between bread making and business, one is the stages of team development, first identified by Bruce Tuckman.

Forming
A group of people become a team when they are each selected and put together, much like the different ingredients being carefully mixed to form dough.

Storming
Initially differences between individuals emerge and the leader must work hard to wrestle with these issues. Similarly the kneading process requires persistent, unrelenting, physical manipulation of the dough to strengthen the gluten strands and give the bread structure.

Norming
Over time the differences between team members dissipate and the group starts to function as a cohesive unit. In bread making it’s essential to give the kneaded dough time to rest, during which time it rises.

Performing
Once the foundations are laid and there’s trust and a common purpose the team can perform, even under immense pressure. Correspondingly, as the dough is exposed to the heat of the oven in makes its final transformation into mouth-watering, aromatic nourishment.

“Bread – like real love – took time, cultivation, strong loving hands and patience. It lived, rising and growing to fruition only under the most perfect circumstances.”Melissa Hill, Something From Tiffany’s.

If you’d like to take part in this programme we are offering a limited number of complimentary places to the first teams to undertake this new brand activity. Please get in touch to check availability.

]]>http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/blog/breaking-bread-our-newest-team-building-programme/feed/0http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/blog/breaking-bread-our-newest-team-building-programme/Team building from everyday objectshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freshtracksblog/~3/tBS_5qJGNew/
http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/blog/team-building-from-everyday-objects/#commentsMon, 16 Feb 2015 13:19:11 +0000http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/?p=5590
Lego fiend Nathan Sawaya has recreated and exhibited his Lego versions of great works of art ...]]>When Lego meets Art (or team building) it delivers more than you’d expect.

Lego fiend Nathan Sawaya has recreated and exhibited his Lego versions of great works of art around the world; but not always to critical acclaim.

Is it art? Or the result of well funded self-publicity?

The exhibition is hailed as accessible, fun and a creative use of an everyday object… 3 ways in which we at Fresh Tracks have been using Lego over the years to playfully help team development.

To find out how Lego can inspire creativity, teamwork, planning, financial budgeting, working under pressure and collaboration contact us to discuss how to incorporate Lego into your next away day or meeting. As visitors to The Art of the Brick find it can be an experience which delivers more than expected.

Relationships, whether at work or at home are not always easy. As the young man in this clip shows we shouldn’t give up at the first knock back.

Partnerships are powerful, they enable individuals to achieve extraordinary things. Good partnerships take persistence, the journey is rarely short. Here are some of the milestones:

1. Understand what the other wants, self-interest undermines trust. Build trust by openly sharing your goals, values and motives.
2. Identify characteristics that you admire and respect in one another.
3. Share a common purpose.
4. Think and talk long term, it makes the inevitable ups and downs easier to deal with.
5. Be transparent.
6. Offer solutions and ideas, not problems.
7. Admit when you are wrong, welcome feedback.

Whether you apply this to a business partnership, joint venture, team or a marriage the principles hold true. In the same way that the children in the video have some learning to do, so do we. Invest in these relationships, a good return is guaranteed.

]]>http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/blog/7-lessons-in-love/feed/0http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/blog/7-lessons-in-love/Only Good Behaviour Can Beat Cyber-crimehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freshtracksblog/~3/NlRARTG9XPU/
http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/blog/only-good-behaviour-can-beat-cyber-crime/#commentsWed, 11 Feb 2015 11:55:54 +0000http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/?p=5568
Ask a ...]]>80% of aircraft accidents are due to human error and cyber security breaches are no different, human behaviour is leaving the doors wide open on our information.

Ask a criminal to identify targets in a crowded street and they’ll select the weak, confused and vulnerable passers-by. Cyber criminals are the same. Consequently your organisations security isn’t just reliant upon the latest firewalls. It depends more on the proper behaviour of your people. Those employees using weak passwords, being careless with their devices and assuming they are not a target are effectively giving hackers the keys to your organisation.

In developing training games that will improve staff behaviour in this area we’ve discovered some shocking truths:

• Senior managers are the worst offenders
• Use of unsecure personal devices for business communication is commonplace
• Sony are not unique, every large organisation has been hacked
• Smaller businesses aren’t immune, Companies House see over 100 cases of corporate identity theft every month

Our new training game ‘Hacked Off’ is designed to change behaviour for the better in a fun and engaging team exercise. If you’d like to be part of the test crew, or you’d like to contribute some content we’d love to hear from you.

Fresh Tracks provide innovative team building, inspiring conferences and have loads if ideas to make work more fun, give us a call, a chat costs nothing.

]]>http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/blog/only-good-behaviour-can-beat-cyber-crime/feed/0http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/blog/only-good-behaviour-can-beat-cyber-crime/Balls to team meetings!http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freshtracksblog/~3/hMfSMfs3PrU/
http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/blog/balls-to-team-meetings/#commentsFri, 06 Feb 2015 11:03:00 +0000http://www.freshtracks.co.uk/?p=5560Do you struggle to feel energised and creative when you think of your next team meeting? Do you feel that livening up the venue might help liven up your thinking?

Creative agency Pearlfisher may have just the thing for you. A massive adult sized ball pool which can entertain up to 30 people at a time is open in Hammersmith, West London until 13th February 2015.

Fresh Tracks have long promoted the idea of play to stimulate ideas and creativity and think that this might be just the place to come up with your next plan to conquer the world. As a bonus, it’s free to visit and for each visit a £1 donation will be made to the charity Right to Play.

Follow this link to read more and find out how to book in your next team meeting.